Conector is the new project from Hector Buitrago, otherwise known as half of Aterciopelados, one of Colombia’s most intentive and popular alternative acts. His new project sees him head in more abstract directions with less of a focus on structure. The result is hypnotic, lush and perfectly capturing the relationship between music and nature that is so relevant in Colombia.
For more from Conector:
soundcloud.com/conector-1
facebook.com/conectormusica
There is certainly no way you could accuse Chico Unicornio of complacency. After releasing a number of singles and the Madrid (Tapes) LP in 2011 he has started 2012 with even more new material, this time coming in the shape of single “Triunfo”, a whole-hearted tribute to the joy of playing and winning at Pro Evolution Soccer (or Winning Eleven 4 as it is known in Peru among other countries).
Listen to all of Chico Unicornio’s recent releases at chicounicornio.bandcamp.com
Interesting new side project here from Bomba Estéreo’s Liliana Saumet. Under the moniker of Leidi Li, she has teamed up with Argentina’s AOIM (known to his bank manager as Pedro D’Alessandro), for a track called Maté A Mi Novio (“I Killed My Boyfriend”), which considering Liliana’s boyfriend is Pedro, makes you wonder how he thought about this recording session would end. The song is considerably more down-tempo than Bomba Estéreo, and sounds pretty damn good to our ears.
Kudos to Remezcla for the heads up on this one.
Here is a new collaboration between two of the Spanish-speaking music world’s finest talents. “Novias” already existed on El Guincho’s Pop Negro album from last year. Here, Javiera Mena – Chile’s queen of electro-pop – adds her vocals, giving the song a completely new lease of life. There’s a power in Javiera Mena’s voice which always grabs your attention, making you believe every word she says, and it’s in full effect here.
Javiera Mena’s Mena album was one of our favourites from 2010, and although El Guincho hails from Spain, he has shown his allegiance to Latin America with releases like Piratas de Sudamerica.
Fifteen Years Old is the solo project of Lima resident Solange Jacobs. On her first release, a six-track EP entitled The Image Lovers, she heads off on a personal (and atmospheric) journey taking in influences such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Tanya Donnelly and elements of other slightly sinister pop acts such as The Cure and TV On the Radio.
Possibly the most obvious comparison for Fifteen Years Old is This Mortal Coil. That project used both male and female vocals, yet it was always the female vocalists (singers such as Liz Frazer and Lisa Gerrard) who stood out, their cleaner, brighter vocals standing out amidst a backdrop that could be as bleak as it was melodic, and that’s exactly the case with Fifteen Years Old. It’s an EP that has good songs, but it’s the interaction between the vocals and the instrumentation where it really excels, affording an atmosphere where one could just curl up and listen in quiet joy.
You can listen to the entire EP below on Soundcloud:
The Image Lovers was released by Buh Records
“Estroboscópica” is a track D Mingus composed in 2004, a song reflecting the vibe in Recife at the end of the 80s, start of the 90s. No surprise then that it takes a moody electro-pop route to capturing that environment. You can listen to more from D Mingus – an artist who continuously experiments with rock, pop, electro and folk, and all points in between – at soundcloud.com/dmingusavu/.
We made a bit of a fuss about the latest Criolo album, making it our best album of 2011 as well as calling it the future of Brazilian hip-hop. Well, it looks like Karol Conka could be making that future come a lot quicker. From the emerging Curitiba hip-hop scene, Conka – like Criolo – mixes traditional Brazilian music with the harder sound of modern hip-hop, while also revealing a love for MPB and samba. Hip-hop in Brazil has always either aped Western hip-hop or gone to the other extreme, becoming insular within it’s scenes in Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro. It’s exactly this kind of insularity that Karol Conka is intending to fight, carrying on the work of Chico Science and Nacao Zumbi in the 90s.
Here is a brand new clip of Conka in action, performing “Gandaia” off her upcoming self-titled debut album:
If you want more, Conka released a promo earlier this year featuring seven tracks, which you can listen to below:
You can check out Karol Conka at myspace.com/mckarolconka and twitter.com/Karolconka
El Hipnotizador Romantico are a five-pieve group from the Mataderos neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. On their self-titled debut album they pitch themselves somewhere between the romantic pop of Rufus Wainwright and the restless musicality of Beirut. The album was released in September this year and is currently awaiting it’s physical release.
You can listen to the album right here:
elhipnotizadorromantico.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/elhipnotizadorromantico
Sebastian Litmanovich has managed to infiltrate the worldwide indie scene more than most under his moniker of Cineplexx. Currently based in London he has collaborated with such indie rock stalwarts as Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub), Duglas Stewart (BMX Bandits) and Jad Fair, and appeared on the Television Personalities tribute All Those Times We Spent Together.
In 2009 Cineplexx released Nuevahola on the cult record label Cherry Red Records. In 2012 they will release their next release Perfume, an album that will surely carry on the infectious, dreamy pop that they have been mastering for quite some time now. Here is the first video to be released from the album, “Crawl O Mariposa”:
The great people at Si No Puedo Bailar featured another new track from Cineplexx on their recent pick of the 20 Best Songs of 2011, and here it is:
Listen to more Cineplexx at cineplexx.net
Chilean indie-pop singer/songwriter Gepe (aka Daniel Riveros) and electronic duo Lluvia Acida have a history that goes back someway, beginning with “Hungría”, a song that dates back to 2006. This has resurfaced here as these two Chilean acts have liberated four of their collaborative works on Soundcloud.
Skipping forward to 2008 and Gepe gave the Lluvia Acida guys some basic vocal and keyboard tracks to work with. One of the results of that session was “Cerro de la Cruz”, a song that featured on Lluvia Acida’s Cruce de Caminos, as well as the rest of the songs here, which includes different takes on tracks off Gepe’s Audiovision album (“Victoria Roma”) and Las Piedras EP (“Las Piedras”).
You can listen to more Lluvia Acida at their Soundcloud page and you can download their latest release Policía del Karma at Pueblo Nuevo.
Our Pueblo Nuevo: New Sounds of Santiago compilation includes some of these collaborations between Gepe and Lluvia Acida as well as other great songs from the Pueblo Nuevo record label, based in Santiago
Jorge Galemire is one of the unsung heroes of Uruguayan music. He played a big part in movements such as candombe beat and canto popular, and has played with a ridiculous number of Uruguayan groups, such as Canciones Para No Dormir La Siesta (with Jaime Roos) and Los Que Iban Cantando, as well as solo artists including Eduardo Darnauchans and Jorge Drexler. He continues playing right up to this day. This is a new and very good video for his song “Carta Sin Abrir.”
This video was made between May 2010 and March 2011 by Alvaro Santos (directing, art, animation, editing) and Sebastián González Majó (art, 3D, animation).
To listen to more from Jorge Galemire: myspace.com/jorgegalemire
Vincent Vega are not named after the John Travolta character in Pulp Fiction but actually after the combined names of actor Vincent D’Onofrio and Vega (the Spanish cage fighter from “Street Fighter”). They are a Uruguayan duo Matías González and Mauricio Sepúlveda, who’ve been around since 2008 and have clearly been influenced by Eduardo Mateo as well as American bands such as Big Star or Wilco.
This video for “El Piso se va a Manchar” uses the rotoscoping style of animation whereby the animator traces over live film, with every second having 15 drawings. It was directed by María Noel Silvera and Sebastián González Majo, and it’s quite glorious in both it’s audio and visual dimensions.
You can listen to more Vincent Vega at http://www.myspace.com/huevomaraca
